St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1887-02-19
SOLDERING IN AFRICA.
a Frenchman's Remarkable Adventures
While q Captive Among the Arabs.

ears at the Union d.poJ recently.
Among them was Frenchman
named Victor Muller, with his wife
and two children. He had Il remark
able story of adventure his life, and
as he rested i'll hotel preparatory to
going out house-hunting he related it
to q reporter as follows:
when | was young had a great
love for the army, and at the
age of seventeen | went to Stras-
bourg TO become n soldier. was put
into an infantry regiment, from which
was transferred III six weeks to the
Third regiment of zouaves. While
among them was sent to Algiers,
where staid for about fifteen years,
fighting the Arabs or living the miser-
able life of a French soldier in Tan
gicr."
why miserab!c?'
"Well, the country is awfully hot,
and anybody who is not used toit suf-
fcrs terribly.''
Did you do any active services"
Eyes, and plenty of it, The Arabs
on the northern coast Of Africa are con-
stantly revolving against the supremacy
of the French, whom that country costs
many a drop Of blood in year. Many
friend did | lose while | was out
there Once when VIC We're on the
desert-we had been after a detach
| mcnt of Arab horsemen-we lost our
| ,.no,,,l for al, Mt ,ynal-
through the vast sea of sand which
stretches itself through the northern
part of Africa-the Sahara. Our sup
ply of water had given out, and we
were almost dying Of thirst, while our
knapsacks with provisions were almost
empty. To get some water and some
! food we resorted at last to the measure
of killing one Of the camels that we had
with us. The camel has stomach which
is divided into four parts, one Of which
contains the water just as the animal
drinks it. We opened that part, and to
our great JOY there was enough water to
give us all ut least a cupfsl each. On
the sixth day our number had dWindled
down to seven, when a cavalcade OF
Arabian horsemen came upon US, and
we, being too weak to defend ourselves,
were made prisoners and taken to
| Taghit, town in Morocco.
Here our Captain was killed in the
most horrible manner by the Arabs.
They tore his nails one by one from his
fingers, cut out his tongue, and
chopped off his ears before they finally
killed him. l myself was sold the next
day to rich Moor. who made me his
valet. l had here comparatively an easy
life, but they forced me there to join the
religion of Mohammed. Unfortunately
my master died, and he leaving no
heirs was taken back by the Govern
ment as their property. They, not
being able to dispose of me Immediate
ly, sent me to Morocco, where l was
put into dungeon among criminals of
the most degraded character. How
ever, appealed to the Sultan, through
the governor of the prison, and l was
released, principally because l had be-
come Mussulman. | ran through the
town, from one end to the other, when
at last found occupation with He
brew, who took me in as water-car-
rier and general servant. AS soon as I
had saved some money, left Morocco
for Algiers. The dangers [ encount-
cred on my long and wearisome jour
ney were horrible-not so much from
the people or from beasts as from the
horrible climate. For five days | trav-
eled through dreary, barren desert.
I was without food for two days. On
several occasions I was misled by the
Fata Morgana. The Fata Morgana is
reflection of some distant place in the
rays of the sun, and is very deceiving
to travellers, especially on the desert
I had left Tlemeen, the town where
Abd-el-Kader vanished the French in
1885, the day previous. When got
on the desert [ had a small flask of
water, which I had been obliged to
buy, as there was a drought in Tie
meen, making water so scarce that it
sometimes came to twenty centimes
-four cents) pint.
"When the water in my flask gave
out seemed to feel awfully thirsty; |
became terribly detected, my head felt
dizzy and ached dreadfully. l was
wishing for the next town with all my
heart. The sun shone down upon the
country with scorching heat. The sand
was so hot that it burned the soles of
my feet. With a fainting heart lifted
up nv head to see whether any trees or
houses appeared on the horizon. Look
ing up / was pleasantly surprised by
noticing in the distance beautiful vii
lage. The little one-story white houses
we're surrounded with large trees,
whose beautiful green foliage, in con-